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Magazine Article

"We as an industry need to nurture and grow the photo business
and expand it," declared David Ritz, president of Ritz Camera
Centers in Beltsville, MD. Ritz was directing his comments to the
more than 120 photo industry leaders who gathered to hear him speak
at last month's PMDA meeting in New York City.

At the meeting, Ritiz tackled a number topics of pressing
concern for retailers and manufacturers including preserving the
history of photography with customers; the importance of the
internet in retail sales; and the growing impact of camera
phones.

"Just like preserving memories with pictures we all have to help
preserve our industry," Ritz said. "We must keep its identity, its
specialty. Our industry deserves this because it is more than just
a product business. It is also a business of memories and emotions.
It preserves the history of our country, our world and our
families. That's why it is a wonderful business.

"Over the past few months we've lost a number of famous
photographers such as Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avendon. However,
they left us the history and memories in their pictures. In fact,
that's why they were famous. They took the tools of our industry
and turned them into emotions and memories of the past."

David Ritz tackled topics of pressing concern for retailers at
last month's PMDA meeting.

Ritz showed how his company was using this theme of capturing
emotions and memories in a number of its recent television spots.
"At Ritz Camera, we believe that is how we continue to grow the
industry. We think the consumer needs to be told what photos are
for. We need to tell a story to them why they need to take
pictures. Many manufactures don't address this on their ads. It's
the story, the history, the emotion and the friends and family. In
today's digital world, pictures have taken on two distinct
roles—the first is sharing and the second is preserving.
These two different ways of enjoying photos offer a lot of
opportunities to the retailer involved in picture making.

"At Ritz we have recognized the added importance that pictures
have made in the digital world. We even reflect this change in our
new logo, Ritz Camera & Image. Why the change? Because we
realized that our customers are coming to us not only to purchase
cameras, but also to enjoy the benefits of digital images and
pictures from film that all cameras produce."

Ritz said this presents a big advantage for the retailer. "The
specialty photo retailer is well positioned today to take
advantages of these changes in digital images and pictures. To
provide better services more sophisticated equipment is needed.
While print station kiosks are important to standard size prints
from digital media, we feel that the many additional services and
products that can be produced will mean growing business for the
photo specialty store. And, at the retail level, many of these
services can be offered in as little as ten minutes."

Growth in Online Services

Ritz then took on the rise of online photofinishing and touched
on his store's new one-hour online service. "Sharing of digital
images has created a new business with photo websites allowing
members and customers to share their pictures with friends and
family. These sites also offer unlimited storage of prints. I
believe that this model might change from lifelong storage to
limited storage, as I don't feel the economics of lifetime storage
are positive ones. Still, storage and sharing of photos leads to
more pictures and gift products being produced as these pictures
move from one computer to another. At our ritzpix.com website, we
offer limited storage and sharing as well as our primary print
feature, Internet Pictures, digital pictures ordered online
delivered in as little as one hour available at most of our stores
for pick up. We find this integrated retail/internet model to be
very positive with our customers. It's quite different from the
typical 3-5 days people have to wait for pictures from other
internet sites. And, with the Ritz national network of stores,
customers can choose a number of stores throughout the United
States for pick up at the same time by friends and family in that
same one-hour period. Of course, film customers can also share
photos over the internet and archive their pictures by simply
ordering CD with their pictures. This has turned out to be a new
business that has grown for film users as digital images have
grown."

Ritz noted that online services are also changing what customers
are ordering. "We have noticed that two sets of pictures as a
requested service has declined as internet sharing has grown. Two
sets are no longer necessary to give a person a picture. Now, many
of these images are shared electronically.

"This leads us to the second role of pictures–preserving.
We at Ritz call it the ‘hard copy picture.' It is still what
pictures and photography are all about. The picture is still the
thing that you can hold in your hand. We need to make all consumers
and people understand this. Without their hard copy pictures, the
memories, and the history will all be lost.

Whether it's the camera manufacturer or digital minilab or kiosk
manufacturer or the photo retailer, that story needs to be told
over an over. Sure it's neat to send those pictures over the
internet or to play them back on the camera's LCD screen, but those
are ‘only slide shows' easily lost or forgotten in the
‘electronic computer world.'

"The real picture is the one you can hold and pass on to the
next generation. You know, those pictures you always see being
saved from floods and fires on the 6 o'clock news. As photo
retailers we can grow this business. It's much easier for us to
make the pictures than for our customers to do it at home. We can
make them better, less expensively and faster—as fast as ten
minutes. We just have to remind the customer that they need those
real pictures."

Ritz then looked at the problems retailers are facing with the
popularity of larger media cards. "Another change we as photo
retailers have to deal with is the large media card. For years we
lived in a world of 24 exposures. Take 24 pictures, go to the
minilab and get prints back. Lots of trips to our stores. Now there
are 256MB, 512MB, 1 Gig cards, holding 200-400 images. That's
wrong. There are too many pictures to save up. It's bad for the
customer and its bad for us. We need to send this message to our
customers: ‘don't get stuck with a full media card. Either
use a smaller one or make sure you make prints and clean that card
out.' If you don't, you run the risk of a full card when you really
need to take that important picture. What we think the customer
wants, and what we try to offer our customers is ‘The Film
Experience.' Simply treat your media cards like you would a roll of
film. Bring your card in when you have 20 or 30 pictures on it,
just like film. Give it to us; we will print your pictures in
minutes and return the card to you—ready to go again. It is a
changing world, certainly in picture making. The specialty camera
store is well positioned to take advantage of those changes as long
as the customer remembers what pictures mean—memories (and
the emotion of the moment)."

The Camera Phone Phenomenon

Ritz then addressed the camera phone phenomenon and the question
of whether the phones would ever replace the digital camera. "There
has been a lot said about camera phones and their effect on the
photo business. Our feeling is bring them on. Why not? More
cameras, in any form, should make more pictures. As long as we can
turn them into real prints. What about a camera phone versus a
regular digital camera? Can that mean the loss of digital camera
sales? Lets look at digital camera sales first. People do not buy
and do not use and do not feel about digital cameras like they did
their film cameras. Their Nikon or Canon or Minolta or Pentax film
cameras were personal. It belonged to you. You repaired it when it
broke. It was like your car. Not so with the digital camera. It has
no personality. You aren't part of it. Today's customer will change
cameras on a whim—design, color, megapixel, size optical
zoom. Different cameras for different moods, styles and uses.
That's good for all of us that sell them. Although that personal
attachment being lost may not be. If the camera is not a tool they
cherish, will the pictures be? So will the camera phone affect
digital camera sales? I don't think so. Also, will these camera
phones mean more pictures? Eventually, but first, everyone needs to
figure out an easy way to get those pictures in the phones to a
photo site or a retail store for printing. With many cellular
services and no compatibility of systems—this is far from
being solved yet. But, when it does, those pictures should
flow."